Fringe: "Peter" Review

Finally, the sad tale of Walter and Peter Bishop is told... and it's the best episode yet.

Spoiler Warning: The full events of this episode are discussed in this review.

The FOX promos advertised this episode as a "must see" television event, and for once they were right. This was an awesome hour of television that is sure to make loyal Fringe fans happy, and bring some much-needed excitement back to the series.

The story starts off back in 1985 with a surprisingly youthful looking Walter Bishop. He holds in his hand what appears to be a Motorola RAZR, which he describes as something he copied from the alternative universe. Walter then proceeds to show some army brass a "window" to the other universe, a tool that becomes very important in the story as Walter spies on his alternate universe self, whom he dubs "Walternate".

There are some nice little differences in the alternate universe. Besides having the RAZR 18 years before we did, they also have Eric Stoltz starring in Back to the Future (Stoltz was cast in the role of Marty McFly when Michael J. Fox was busy with Family Ties, only to be replaced several weeks into filming). The Observers (including the ill-fated August) seemed to enjoy the humans' whimsical attempts at describing the future in an interesting little scene that shows how much observing they do in more than one universe. These are all nice little touches that help bring life to the alternate universe concept.

But the main catalyst of this story is the portrayal of the death of young Peter, which is quite heartbreaking. Just after he gives his father his favorite coin, those little eyes just blankly stare into the void while in his father's embrace. It's a powerful dramatic scene that really brings home how much Peter's loss hurt Walter. The scene where Walter views Walternate finding the cure for Peter's disease, but not realizing it because of the Observer's intervention is just as moving. John Noble makes this scene work all by himself. He puts the burden of this entire episode on his shoulders and carries it like no one else could. Somebody better give this man a gold statuette of some kind for this role, because he deserves it.

This episode marks the first appearance of Peter's mother Elizabeth (Orla Brady). Also making an appearance for the first time is Dr. Carla Warren, Walter's lab assistant whom we learned a little about in "The No-Brainer" via her mother. The official story is that Dr. Warren died in an accidental lab fire, the same fire that put Walter in the mental institution nearly twenty years ago. Dr. Warren's appearance here suggests that this storyline will play out in later episodes, and we'll get a look at exactly what happened that fateful day. We also got an answer on a long-leftover question from Season 1 —we now know that Nina Sharp lost her arm while trying to stop Walter from crossing over into the other universe, but it's still unclear exactly why Peter is so important to her. I'm looking forward to that tidbit being revealed later.

The writing in this story is brilliant. It seems like every line carries some emotional weight or importance to the overall story. But nothing hits harder than Elizabeth's "Bring him back to me.", delivered perfectly by Brady. The whole situation with Peter really pulls at the heartstrings, and then the pinnacle of the action occurs when Peter and Walter fall through the ice and the Observer saves them, just as Walter had said in previous stories. Back then, it seemed like a possible cover story, but it was in fact just part of the truth.

In all my time here at IGN, I've never given any show a 10 score, because I feel achieving near-perfection in television fiction is so very rare. But I honestly could not find much to critique here. This is the most masterfully crafted episode Fringe has ever had. The performances are top notch, the special effects are great, and even the music perfectly fits the tone of the story. But most importantly, this script delivers real answers to many leftover questions from previous episodes and finally delivers the "payoff" on so many story threads that have been woven through the series. It was everything a Fringe fan could have hoped for. Does this episode make up for the missteps and foot-dragging of the first half of this season? Not really. But it does certainly give hope that the best is still yet to come for this series.